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Rerun van Pelt
Rerun van Pelt is a character in the Peanuts comic strip by Charles M. Schulz. He is the younger brother of Linus and Lucy. Rerun is the youngest permanent character in Peanuts. History Rerun was born on May 23, 1972, in the middle of a storyline that involved Lucy kicking Linus out of the house. When Lucy compared having a second brother to television reruns, Linus thought "Rerun" would be a perfect name for the baby (or possibly nickname; the first panel of the September 11, 1996 strip suggests that he does not know any other name for himself). Rerun's first actual appearance was on March 26, 1973. He joined Charlie Brown's baseball team on March 29, 1973. A few weeks later, the team won their first ever game, only to forfeit the game in a gambling scandal. It was revealed on April 19, 1973 that Rerun had bet on the game with Snoopy. At first, Rerun was only a minor character, appearing mostly on the back of his mother's bicycle, terrified. By the early 1980s, Schulz said he had "run out of ideas" on how to use Rerun. In a documentary, Sibling Rivalry: Growing Up Van Pelt, Schulz's widow recalled that he even admitted that he regretted creating Rerun because he could not think of any further way to use the character, and yet he could not eliminate him altogether, as his siblings were main characters. However, in the early 1990s he started appearing more frequently, having grown beyond infancy, and as Schulz said, Rerun "took over" the comic by the mid-1990s. By 1996, Rerun had aged to 5 years old, so he was still younger than the other characters in the Peanuts gang. Schulz's widow speculated that Rerun's newfound prominence was likely due to the emergence of grandchildren in Schulz's life. A running gag featuring Rerun has him being too scared to go to kindergarten on some days, so he hides under his bed. Lucy tries to get him to move, but Rerun rarely does. Another running gag is that Rerun wants a pet dog. He frequently borrows Snoopy from Charlie Brown. In one storyline, starting May 16, 1996, Rerun convinces Snoopy to invite Spike to move in to the van Pelt house as a pet. Rerun changes his mind when he sees how skinny Spike is. In strips from the final years of Peanuts, Rerun is often shown drawing "underground comics" at school against his teacher's instructions to draw pictures of flowers. Other characters often inform Rerun that his drawings do not resemble his intended subjects. At other times, Rerun tries to sell his drawings, including ones of Snoopy, door to door. In Sibling Rivalry: Growing Up Van Pelt, it is suggested that Schulz's storylines about Rerun's cartoonist aspirations were autobiographical. Perhaps the most common joke used about Rerun refers to his poor basketball skills. Linus first introduces Rerun to basketball in the strip from July 28, 1994. In subsequent strips, Rerun is often seen on the basketball court, but he is not very good. He is often shown kicking the ball in frustration, only to have it bounce back at him. In one strip he keeps missing the basket, puts the basketball in a closet and closes the door, saying, "You can come out when you learn to behave." Rerun also yearns to play baseball on Charlie Brown's team. Despite having been allowed to join the team as an infant, leading to the gambling scandal that cost the team a rare win, strips from the 1990s often show Rerun's request being rejected by Charlie Brown. After Charlie Brown bluntly refuses to let Rerun play because he is too young and too small, Rerun accuses him of discrimination and obtains a court order, signed by Snoopy the World Famous Attorney, allowing him to play. Relationships Linus Rerun seems to get along with Linus for the most part, but they each have significantly less interaction with each other than with their sister, Lucy. Like Lucy, Rerun can sometimes be embarassed by Linus' habits, like his security blanket, and how he waits for the Great Pumpkin every October. Rerun has admitted to Snoopy that he is unable to look up to Linus as a role model because of his thumb-sucking and blanket. When Rerun became a main character in the 1990s, most of his sibling contact was with Lucy, only interacting with Linus to express embarassment at his thumb-sucking, security blanket and Great Pumpkin beliefs. Lucy Lucy definitely shows a softer side to Rerun than she does to Linus. She is nice to Rerun, and often acts as a mentor for him. In his first appearance in the strip, on March 26, 1973, Lucy is seen taking the infant Rerun outside for the first time. When Rerun was reintroduced as a toddler in the early 1990s, Lucy is shown teaching him now to tie his shoes. In the later years of the strip, Lucy is seen playing board games with Rerun, trying to lure Rerun out from under the bed for school, and even listening to Rerun's accounts of his day in kindergarten. Rerun often shows a knack for getting around Lucy and weakening her defenses, whereas Linus is apt to give up and just let Lucy dominate him. In one strip, Lucy walks up to Rerun building a sand castle in a sandbox, and asks him what he would do if she kicked it down. Rerun responds; "Oh, nothing I guess. But years from now, when you and your Husband come over to my house, and ask me to co-sign for a loan for you, I might remember it". Lucy appears to think this over for a moment, and then walks away grinding her teeth in frustration, while Rerun smugly continues building his sand castle. Little Pigtailed Girl Rerun seems to have an innocent crush on the Little Pigtailed Girl, who sits next to him in their kindergarten class. He always talks to her in a flirty way. In one strip he takes her to one of Charlie Brown's baseball games. One series of strips sees Rerun jokingly offer to run away to Paris with her, which results in a one day suspension from school for harassment. Snoopy Snoopy and Rerun were first shown in the same strip on March 27, 1973 when Snoopy greets the infant Rerun in his sandbox by licking his face. Snoopy then turns away, observing that Rerun "tastes terrible." In strips from the later years of Peanuts, Rerun repeatedly asks Charlie Brown if he can borrow Snoopy. Snoopy and Rerun are often seen together in later strips, playing card games, throwing and chasing balls and frolicking in the snow. Rerun, younger than the other children in the strip, even treats Snoopy as a confidant at times, sharing his anxieties and thoughts with the beagle, who often responds with exasperated or sarcastic thoughts. External links * [http://gocomics.com/peanuts/1972/05/23 Lucy learns that she has a new baby brother in the Peanuts comic strip from May 23, 1972.] * [http://gocomics.com/peanuts/1973/03/26 Rerun's first appearance in Peanuts from March 26, 1973.] Category:Characters Category:Characters